


Breakdown

by oikawhale



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence, Comfort/Angst, Demon AU, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Haikyuu!! AU, Heavy Angst, Hinata x Kageyama, Hurt/Comfort, KageHina - Freeform, Kageyama x Hinata - Freeform, M/M, Violence, demon!hinata, haikyuu au, how do you tag lololol, im so sorry hinata, im sorry everyone, sorry - Freeform, the demon au no one asked for lololol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 18:31:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8295775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oikawhale/pseuds/oikawhale
Summary: Kageyama accidently messes with the affairs of the magical council and their live experiments. He doesn't know how and he couldn't care less; because saving that annoying little demon from the labs and running from the military across worlds he never knew existed with him was probably one of the best (and most questionable) decisions he had ever made. "I can't believe I'm running from the military with a demon so small that-""I am NOT small! I'm just... vertically challenged!""They mean the same thing, dumbass redhead."  "Hinata? Hinata, keep your eyes open." "I love you.""I love you too...... dumbass."





	

**Author's Note:**

> hello! 
> 
> this is a hopefully harrowing demon!au that no one actually asked for.
> 
> this first chapter is more of a prologue than anything else. if it's confusing, don't worry; things get explained as the plot unfolds later on.
> 
> comments are appricated! (:

No one knew how it had happened, or how it had all began.

 

One day, it had been normal.

  
The next, it hadn't.

  
The sky's blazing orange had become a furious inferno of colour within the darkness, with the citadel enclosed in a mighty arch of fire left decaying from its former glory under the sun. Beyond that, the mountains seemed to go on forever, slopes of slate grey capped with Northern snow that set as a never-ending battlefield, untouched by the roaring hearth.

  
They were barely even visible in front of the very climax of the flames; shaking silhouettes crouched in the shadows, outlined with the ring of eternal heat that licked at their wings and carved ash into their bruised skin. The alleyway, narrow and blindingly complicated, with little more to offer then the few battered trashcans that had already dented and melted from the sweltering fingers of the blaze, did nothing to shield them from the cruel reminder that death was knocking on the door just outside.

  
They were all gone. Every single one of them. Lost to the holocaust, their broken ashes lay somewhere between the flames, rotting and burning and why did they have to go? How could he just leave them out to die? Why did they have to lose the fighting battle in the midst of the coals so quickly? They all had so much to live for and so much life left to experience, yet they had let their walls tumble to the oxidation that inflicted upon their world.

  
There was nothing he could do to help her. Everything he could have done had been lost along with their world. The fire still raged on outside of the shadows but, here he was, crouched in the ashes, holding his broken little sister against his quivering body, sobbing more than he had ever done out of fear and grief and pain and _so much more pain_.

  
"Find a suitable test subject and disable them!"

 

"Kill anything and anyone!"

  
Shoyo Hinata didn't look up when he heard the shouts. No, his attention remained on Natsu laying on his lap, and the silver-tinted blood that ran through his fingers as he tried to quench the bleeding.

  
His fear was palpating to his temples and his wings were aching with the very effort of shielding his sister from the flames, but he took no notice. Protect the last of his kind. The last of his family. Protect her, and escape into the Viva, into where he would be safe from the magical council and the brutality of their military.

  
Natsu whimpered and pity struck Hinata's heart. "Shh," he whispered softly, "you have to stay quiet, okay? If you stay quiet a little bit longer, you'll be okay. I promise. I'm doing everything I can to protect you from them, okay?"

  
He pressed further into the wall. The slosh of both his and Natsu's blood underneath the tips of his wings was ugly but Hinata couldn't worry about his disgust right now. Perhaps taking refuge between the only upright buildings on the street wasn't so much of a good idea.

  
Yet another explosion shook the ground, with the immense power of an earthquake. A whimper resounded from Natsu and Hinata moved to gently cover her mouth with ash-stained fingers. "I know it hurts. I know it hurts, and I'm sorry. But you have to stay quiet for me, okay? They'll find us if we make noise. You don't want them to find us, do you, Natsu?"

  
Footsteps, thunderous and heated as heavy-duty leather boots struck upturned chunks of tarmac and scattered pools of silver-tinted blood that painted the rubble, rang from outside the crumbling alleyway. Hinata froze in that position - rubbing circles in the little girl's palm with his thumb - and only shifted his eyes to watch for any approaching danger.

  
Royal navy uniforms, donned with clattering disks of gold and silver held to the fabric by coloured strips. Guns held in ripped buckskin holsters, or in blood-stained, shaking fingers. Hinata supposed that they were being just as courageous as the demonrace were, but for all the wrong reasons.

  
They were deteriorating. The race of the black demons were falling. The magical council's military had been unfairly prepared for this war and the demons hadn't even seen it coming until first blood had been spilled. No one knew why they had come. No one knew why all of this chaos had been ignited. Hinata had wondered whether it was to take back something they had lost to their kind, but what exactly? They had never caused trouble with the affairs of the magical council.  They may be black demons, but they weren't necessarily ghastly in their deeds and demeanour.

  
And now, only three hours later, everything was falling apart.

  
His house had been reduced to little more but singed rubble in the aftermath of a loose explosive long ago. Luckily they hadn't been in it at the time of its destruction - his mother had told Hinata to get himself and Natsu to safety before promptly taking off in a different direction - but he had watched it happen.

  
He had watched the home he had grown up in and shared memories in crumble to nothing but ruins before his very eyes. Everything was gone. What had remained of his past life was now left in flaming tatters.

  
_Fire roaring as it caught the walls. Spitting ashes as it caught the floorboards. Natsu sobbed into her older brother's shoulder as hen adjusted her grip on her. Hinata's honey brown eyes danced as he watched everything he had once loved burn to cinders in the flames._

  
And it was heartbreaking.

  
Usually, Hinata wasn't the one to cry in the difficult times they had faced, but this was an exception. How could anyone blame him? Here he was, an innocent boy lost in the midst of a war between good and bad, watching everything he had once loved rip away from him by the hands of cold-hearted military personnel and their magic.  
A flash of pale blue energy broke through the darkness caused by the ash and Hinata finally regained his senses. The figure that followed the burst of light was harmless upon first glance; the horns that twisted from his temples were a dead giveaway. Only black demons had horns.

  
Not to mention the dim amethyst flame that was balanced on his fingertips, lighting the room up just enough for him to see through the piling residue but not so much as to draw attention from the adversary side.

  
"You guys can't stay in here," the unidentified being stated. The voice was male and amiably smooth, suggesting both kindness and pity in only its tone. Edward knew he could trust the demon with their safety, until they got to their mother that was. "It's too dangerous and they're bound to blow it up before long. Where are your parents?"

  
Hinata pulled his hand away from Natsu's mouth and pressed it to her stomach, slowing the flow of blood pouring from her wound. His other hand found her quivering fingers and he held them as if he were holding onto his little sister's very life force. At the contact, Natsu sniffled and reached a hand to touch his soft grey horns.

  
"We... w-we don't know..."

  
It felt purely immoral to be admitting weakness like this, but Hinata knew all too well that playing the brave one was going to end up meaningless. They needed the evidence that their mother was safe and unharmed before they could even hope to feel better. Or perhaps, watching a human meet their end would be enough to boost their inner confidence. It wasn't like they didn't deserve it, anyway; for all he cared, they could go ahead and shoot themselves in the head with the guns they seemed to be so fond of.

  
If only they would.

  
"I hate this all," the being sighed, stooping beside Hinata and Natsu with sympathy shining in his gaze.

  
"Why?" Hinata hiccupped.

  
He knew the answer already, anyway, but he just needed to talk. To get his mind off things.

  
It was then that the former noticed the stream of silver-tinted blood pouring from a gash in his forehead, dripping off his chin and onto the dusty floorboards below. The crimson colouring was accented in the light of the indigo flame in his palm. "A couple of kids like you shouldn't be in the middle of all of this. I just wish that they would realize what they're doing and stop before anyone else gets killed or anything else gets pointlessly destroyed."

  
The ash was staining the skin on his exposed arms a faded black, the bruises accented by the dim lighting. His wings ached but he curled them closer around Natsu, trying to shield her from the heat of the flames. The unidentified demon released a soft, compassionate chuckle and the purple-hued flame in his hand brightened by only a fraction.

  
A finger touched gently at his cheek but Hinata pulled away from it like it was diseased. "Your eyes," he began softly, "they're beautiful. Warm and bright, even in this torture. It's amazing."

  
Hinata smiled. "Thank you."

  
He heard Natsu whimper as she touched his horns again. The man tilted his head to look at her, then at the blood that ran through Hinata's fingers as he held his hands to the wound on her stomach. "I need to get you out of here now," he said critically, all traces of previous humour gone from his voice.

  
"Why?" Hinata asked, softly.

  
"I got too off-track and now you're in even more danger. The air demons are taking in survivors and I've been sent out to do a last minute search by some guy named Sugawara. He said he knew you. Thank God I found you, or you may have been dead by now-"

  
But he suddenly stopped.

  
Hinata jerked away as the man's body hit the ground.

  
He felt his blood turn to ice as he stared at the crimson puddle collecting around the man's lifeless cadaver, running within the crevices left by scattered chunks of asphalt and wooden planks snapped from the floorboards. In his back, two small holes, both flowing to all comers with the red liquid and staining his blue shirt a portentous purple.

  
_He's dead._

  
_He was shot in the back._

  
It went silent. Hinata stared at the body, bathed in the pool of white light left by the entrance to the alleyway, holding Natsu closer to him. Skin slowly staining black as ash imprinted the pale colour. Horns crumbling as the demon's life force slipped away like water in his hands. The blood still spreading, twisting within the broken cracks and collecting around Hinata's thin leather shoes. That metallic scent bating the air like it had poured from the skies. Dead.

  
_Killed._

  
_Killed._

  
_Dead._

  
_Gone-_

  
The light that accented the lifeless body shifted as a shadow crossed its path. Hands shaking as they grasped a sobbing Natsu's, Hinata looked up. Yet another figure, an energy gun held vertically in his hands, fingers working to load bullets into the chamber.

  
The lack of demon horns protruding from his skull was all Hinata needed to identify that this man was going to cause them harm. A wretched military soldier. One that had the heart - or rather, lack thereof - to assassinate someone who had plainly been helping a couple of children out of the midst of this meaningless battle.

  
_DEAD_.

  
The thought burnt into his skull.

  
The soldier said something, but Hinata didn't understand it. All he could hear was the sensation of his heart palpitating, forcing ripples of blood directly to his temples. He sat, paralyzed, and felt his once-strong demeanour crumble before his very eyes. He was disconsolate, and for the first time in his life, secluded from the rest of the world. Not even Natsu's whimpers of terror and pain pulled him from this indissoluble trance.

  
Fear was crippling. It froze every muscle in his body. A foreign emotion to someone who had been forced into being brave and protective for so long now. Hinata hated it; he just wanted it to leave, so his movement wasn't restricted and the breath wasn't ripped away from his lungs. So he had the freedom to run from the danger and get to safety before more blood was spilled in this room.

  
But he couldn't leave Natsu.

  
She was injured. She couldn't run herself.

  
So he would have to carry her. Simple.

  
The soldier smirked and Hinata grasped Natsu's hand tighter; his little sister quivered from both fear and the haunting pain. "Natsu," he whispered, honey brown eyes gentle as he gazed down at her, "on three, I'm going to pick you up, and we'll run, okay? There's a way out just behind us. I'll run through the fire, and I'll try and fly us to safety, okay?"

  
Natsu made no reaction. Hazel colours glanced away from the soldier and at her older brother. This was when the trust that they had in each other would be tested. Their close relationship would be strained by the sheer intensity of the war. Hinata was strong and fearless - he cared about his family, so much so that he often got injured trying to help them. Natsu could only trust him.

  
She was too young to know better.

  
The man said mumbled something and someone else joined them, also adorned in the royal navy military uniform they all seemed to be clothed in. Both held energy guns in their holsters, but the taller of the two had some sort of different weapon in his hand, the metal of the pointed end glinting in the orange light of a faraway explosion.

  
Hinata knew what the guns were. He knew what the energy bullets were. He knew the damage dealt by them and how to avoid them. But he didn't know what the odd plastic contraption was or what it did exactly; the liquid it was filled with - a dark green, swirling with some sort of paler energy like a constricted whirlpool - was making him exceedingly nervous.

  
Something about it gave off an uneasy aura and he felt that it wouldn't be good if he were to make contact with it. The only thing about that was that it was quite clear it was for him. Either that, or it was meant for Natsu instead.

  
But there was no way that he would be letting them get to his younger sister.

  
The state of affairs may seem dreadful and he may be downright petrified, but that didn't mean his duties as the older brother of the family weren't still in play. With the sudden burst of confidence came the brotherly protection that Natsu needed. "One," he whispered, sliding his feet underneath him. Natsu whimpered with the movement, and she cooed under his breath, trying to keep her calm as he collected her in his arms.

  
As if realizing their unfolding plan, the man who had been holding the needle strode through the doorway and towards the siblings. Natsu squeaked. Hinata made no reaction. They would get out. It was just all about perfect timing and exploiting their more-diminutive size against the enemy. Just wait...

  
"N-Nii..."

 

"Shh. Two..."

  
The solider was only a meter away. The needle was poised flawlessly for attack. Hinata levered himself onto the balls of his feet and Natsu tightened herself up.

  
"Three..."

  
"They're trying to get away!"

  
"GO!"

  
In one smooth movement, chaos unveiled like an opening curtain. Everything seemed to be in slow-motion as everyone moved at once. The soldier jerked forward to grab Hinata's arm, his fingers curling around the plastic contraption as he positioned it directly for the teenager's upper arm. He wasn't sure what it was or what it would do if it were to come into contact with him, but the man's expression wasn't exactly portraying an optimistic consequence.

  
And Hinata simply acted upon impulse. Within moments he was up off the floor, his hands by now grasping his younger sister as he carried her with him.  
The loose chunks of tarmac and greasy demon blood that sprayed across the floor made for a rougher footing but they successfully managed to cross the room, without a trip that would have literally made a difference between life and death.

  
He barely got a look at the room they had entered next. It was just as dark as their previous hideout and the ground, while smothered by a layer of collapsed ceiling and, wasn't stained in blood like it had been in the other space. The scent was ashy instead of metallic - not exactly pleasurable, but better than the smell of the demon's spilled blood.  
Hinata carried a sobbing Natsu to the doorway that would have presumably lead to another room in the house, but it must have met the explosive wrath of a grenade, for the walls were blown out and the snapped floorboards were burnt over with a sheet of crumbing black ash underneath the remains of the collapsed ceiling. The scent of gunpowder still bated the air with its furious odour, choking Hinata with its sheer strength.

  
Hinata took little time to figure out his plan. With the nimble athleticism of a rabbit he was over the crumbled walls and into re street, twisting and jumping and dodging flying energy bullets as they sprayed the air beside his head. Natsu's light weight barely affected his movements, only his anxiousness.

 

"N-Nii..."

  
Warm eyes stared into his younger sister's own. They were the same beautiful honey brown as Hinata's own, but they held none of the friendly spark that ignited his gaze. Instead they were faded and clouded-over, as if she weren't even conscious. It was startling.

  
Hinata bit his lip, pressing one hand to her stomach again.

  
Natsu was scared. That much was obvious, by a single brief glance. Pale skin stained by bruises and ash, wide, alarmed eyes, quivering legs. Shaking fingers that ran along her older brother's blood-splattered, twisted grey horns like it was a nervous habit.

  
"We'll be okay. You'll be okay. I promise. Uncle Suga is looking for us, and he'll find us, I promise."

  
Hinata wasn't sure whether those words were to relax Natsu or himself anymore.

  
It seemed to do the trick, however, for despite Natsu's pain, she was suddenly smiling and holding Hinata's fingers. "Uncle S-Suga!" she chirped slowly, carefully.  
The little girl's renewed buoyancy was all Hinata needed to feel that thrilling adrenaline rush as he took off down the street, his wings folded behind him, evading larger chunks of upturned tarmac and swallowing their distressed tears as they passed the bleeding bodies of those they recognized as their own kind. They ignored the flaming buildings, the thundering gunshots as bullets discharged for their target.

  
They just kept going.

  
Something about sprinting down the street in the midst of fatal jeopardy was exhilarating despite the reason they were actually running for.

  
And Hinata wasn't going to cry. No, he was going to be brave now, so his sister could feel brave herself. He swallowed down that tight sentiment restricting his airways, the lack of moisture in his throat stabbing at his gullet like a knife hacking into his stomach. Crying now was weakness, and weakness gave the military that sick satisfaction they seemed to crave so much.

  
"Nii-Chan...?"

 

"You're okay, Na-"

  
He felt the pain before he heard the shot. White hot and burning like a wildfire, ripping and tearing at his limbs with no restraint. It felt as if he were being cut in half with a blunt knife. The agony was so strongly accented that he didn't feel his body hit the ground, nor did he feel rough, gloved hands grabbing at his forearms.

  
He only heard the objecting cry of Natsu as she dropped to the floor. Black tinted the edges of his vision and Hinata felt his world plunge underwater.

  
The voices were muffled. Everything spun as his body was moved, the light from distant explosions flashing in his blurred vision. Faces were far away and their features were hidden by the sweep of a lingering shadow. Something warm was running down his arm and torso. Pain laced his structure, but it was dulled. Numbed by the ice-cold waves that flooded all he knew.

  
But then, it stopped.

  
It was an endless abyss, lacking the colour and noise of any world that could have been imagined. There were no corners, there were no walls, there was no ceiling, there was no floor, and there were no ways out. He couldn't see anything but the eternal sheet of unpretentious white, and, for a long, long while, it remained just like that. Silent and motionless in its own whirlpool of close-mouthed illusion.

  
A flash, from a distant surface that didn't seem to exist. It wasn't blindingly bright, but it wasn't dull or muted instead. There was no chosen colour to it either, and he didn't feel like white was the proper word to label it with. He would squint in that general direction but would see nothing but the fading waves of light from the previous coruscation.

  
Boom. Another explosion shook the ground and suddenly the pain stabbed at his shoulder once more. Hinata gasped greedily as his access to oxygen became restricted, ash and blood clogging up his senses. It was all too much. Too overwhelming. He needed to get out. He needed to get away. The military. They were bad. They killed. They-

  
And all he heard, before everything went dark, was a single, deadly gunshot, and a scream.

**Author's Note:**

> comments are appriciated! (:


End file.
